Too-beautiful British writer: 'The bile proves my point'

On Tuesday we ran a piece in the The Look chronicling the firestorm started by Brick, 41, a British freelance writer who penned an essay in the Daily Mail about how petty and cruel other women have been to her over the years because she’s so attractive. In the essay, Brick describes the way men she’s never met tend to shower her with free bottles of champagne, train tickets, cab fare, drinks and flowers — while the women in her life treat her with hostility and jealousy and block her from promotions at work.

To put it mildly, the essay BLEW UP. It triggered media coverage all over the world and elicited thousands of comments from readers — many of whom described Brick as delusional and criticized her appearance. “Samantha Brick” became a globally trending topic on Twitter and remained so on Wednesday, thanks in no small part to a follow-up essay Brick wrote about the backlash.

In her most recent piece, Brick defiantly defends her original essay and says the mean-spirited vitriol directed at her proves the point she was trying to make.

“Their level of anger only underlines that no one in this world is more reviled than a pretty woman,” Brick wrote.

“If Brad Pitt were to say: ‘Yes, I'm a good-looking fella,’ then the world would nod sagely in agreement. But if Angelina Jolie uttered something along those lines, she’d be subject to the same foaming-at-the-mouth onslaught hurled at me yesterday.”

Brick confessed to crying repeatedly in reaction to people’s comments and described the past 24 hours as “among the most horrendous” in her life.

“But do I regret my article? Not at all,” Brick wrote. “I know I’m risking the wrath of the online community once more, but there is an irony to yesterday. While I was tearfully dealing with the emails and calls outside the supermarket, a young man approached me, offered to park my car and even get me a coffee. He could see I was having a tough time — and yes, my looks had helped me out again.”

Not surprisingly, day two of this media frenzy has taken a decided turn toward comedy. The tweets are still coming fast and furious, and many, like this one, are having fun with the entire dustup: “Samantha Brick arrested for attempted murder of Snow White so she can remain ‘fairest in the land.’ ”

Even better, a spoof Samantha Brick Twitter account, @La_Brick, has launched with the tagline “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” It’s serving up gems like these:

“To all my new male followers: I’m flattered, but I’m not surprised.”

“Another free latte. I ordered tea, but he had such imploring eyes. And the lady who thought it was ‘her’ latte — if looks could kill!!”

OK. So. Once again, we’d love to hear your take on all of this in the comments section below. Do you think Brick makes a valid point about the way attractive women are treated by other women? Do you think the online reactions to Brick are warranted on any level? Is there such a thing as too much self-esteem? You can even vote on the self-esteem issue by clicking here.